Riz Ahmed in Talks to Join ‘Venom’!!

Riz Ahmed’s star has really taken off in the last year. He racked up two Emmy nominations (one for The Night Of and another for Girls), landed one of the lead roles in Star Wars: Rogue One, and his career is showing no signs of slowing down. THR reports that the actor is now in talks to join Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man spinoff, Venom. The film will star Tom Hardy with Ruben Fleischer (Gangster Squad) directing.

Early reports speculated that Ahmed was in talks to play the villain Carnage, but THR reports that while he did read for that role, he’s now up for another part since script changes have been made. Additionally, whatever this role may be, other actors who read for it included Matt Smith, Pedro Pascal, and Mathias Schoenarts according to Variety’s Justin Kroll. That’s a pretty diverse range of actors, and while they’re all talented, it’s interesting that they’re all up for the same role.

It will be interesting to see how all this casting shakes out, and how quickly everything comes together. Venom is due out in a little over a year, and it will likely require some intensive post-production since protagonist Eddie Brock in his Venom form will need to be heavily CGI and if Carnage is the villain, he’s likely CGI as well. That’s not to say doing these kind of effects is impossible in the span of a year, but it will certainly be a crunch.

Ahmed recently wrapped filming on the adaptation of The Sisters Brothers starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, and John C. Reilly.